Electronic Arts

The Creative Innovation team within Central Technologies is the driving force behind EA's cutting-edge research, 3rd-party partnerships, and content creation technologies. From AI-powered tools for character animation to groundbreaking world-building systems, this team researches, innovates, and integrates transformative technologies into creative workflows. By joining Creative Innovation, you'll work at the intersection of creativity, technology, and design solutions that redefine immersive gaming experiences. If you're looking for a team that combines the agility of a startup with the impact of a global AAA, then we're looking for you.

We are looking for a Development Director to lead the delivery of complex, highly technical programs across one of our subteams. This role is Hybrid and located in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Reporting to the Product Development Director in Tools & Technology (TnT), you'll also collaborate with operational and project management individuals across Creative Innovation (CI) to ensure consistency and smooth daily execution.

The Challenge Ahead

The Development Director (DD) is responsible for driving the delivery of complex, highly technical projects from creation to completion. You will bring deep technical project management expertise and lead cross-functional teams through the full lifecycle of sophisticated data and AI-driven programs. In this role, you will spearhead a portfolio of cutting-edge capabilities. These capabilities include DataLake infrastructure, Data Provenance frameworks, and emerging AI capabilities. They will fundamentally shape how our organization builds, manages, and leverages data and intelligence at scale.

Day to Day, You Will…

• Lead end-to-end delivery of large-scale technical projects. These projects include DataLake architecture, Data Provenance systems, and AI capability development. Own scope, schedule, budget, and quality from kickoff through release.

• Provide strong career management to direct reports, identifying growth opportunities, setting clear expectations, and actively developing individuals toward their full potential.

• Define and maintain technical project roadmaps, translating complex engineering requirements into clear milestones, dependencies, and delivery plans.

• Drive quarterly and sprint planning processes, ensuring the team adheres to Agile principles while continuously improving planning rigor and execution discipline.

• Own project finances, including budget forecasting, resource allocation, and vendor or cross-team dependency management.

• Identify, assess, and proactively mitigate technical and project risks, removing blockers, resolving ambiguities, and escalating where appropriate.

• Partner with engineering leads, data architects, and AI/ML teams to ensure technical feasibility, sound design decisions, and alignment with organizational strategy.

• Establish and track clear KPIs and delivery metrics, surfacing progress, variances, and risks to senior stakeholders.

• Promote a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement across the teams you oversee.

• Collaborate with Product and Technical leads to define and assign sprint tasks from quarterly goals, leveraging GitLab to maintain visibility and accountability.

You Are / You Have…

• 6+ years of project management experience, with a strong focus on highly technical projects involving data infrastructure, data engineering, or AI/ML systems.

• 3+ years of team leadership experience, including direct people management and career development of technical staff.

• Experience leading complex, multi-workstream projects from start to finish.

• Strong understanding of data ecosystems, including data lakes, data pipelines, data governance, lineage, or provenance concepts.

• Familiarity with AI/ML development lifecycles and the unique delivery challenges of building intelligent systems.

• Proficiency with Agile and hybrid project management methodologies, with experience facilitating sprint planning, retrospectives, and quarterly goal-setting.

• Exceptional stakeholder management, able to translate technical complexity for non-technical audiences and vice versa.

• University degree (Bachelor's) in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.